Theodore a 51 3a project

[mtnman37879]

The secret to plating is, If you want shiny as chrome, it has to be polished as shiny as chrome before you plate.

[cbauer]

I used a wire wheel on the parts before plating. With the color of my jeep to be red and black it should be a nice contrast to the plating. I�m going for a Mat/brushed finish for the most part.
I will tel you guys that these parts were absoulotly rusted and I put them in muratic acid for just one hour and the rust was gone completely. It is now my new favorite was to clean parts.

[Dajeepman]

Thanks George, I grew up in Arlington and moved up to Lake Texoma. I know your area well, and I liked you rebuild. I come down to the metroplex every now and again, but prefer peeps to come and visit here (better Traffic less stress)

good to see more North Texas folks.. Im in east texas. use to live in Duncanville. Got family in redoak and ferris.

We need a North Texas jeep meet lol

[cbauer]

I had a dim light bulb turn on in my head and decided to see if the extra motor I had is worth messing with. As it turns out the industrial motor I got with a trade of parts had low hours on it.
Took the head off and it is standard pistons and harden seats for the exhaust valves, not sure on the intakes. The motor before I took possession was siting in a horse barn. Spun freely and the water pump off it.
So one night after putting a parts list together for the other motors complete rebuild, I had read a post on someone trying to get there motor running after siting for 30 years. They were successful in their endever so I asked myself why not try the industrial motor.
The motor had a lot of mud and dirt due to it being on a water pump,lots of rust on the pan and timing cover, but I will use those parts from my 3 a motor.
I began to clean the outside with wire wheels and steel brushes and it really well.
Started to clean the inside of the block and what a mess of rust and scale, I mean a huge amount! I spent 2+ hours with compressed air and a long air gun blowing mountains of debis out of every opening. Unfortunately the motor only had two freeze plugs not four which made the blowing out the cavities difficult.

I have three motors one from my 2a parts jeep and the one from the 3a all of them have timing gears.
I plan to clean this industrial motor paint it on the stand, check the crank and rod bearings, lap the valves and close it up.
Once closed up I�ll flush the motor with vinegar and water then mount up all the goodies the make these cool little engine run.

If this motor runs with good compression I�ll install it on my rolling chassis and phase two in my double secret evil plan to build a farm jeep will be complete. So I�m hopeful that this will save some time and a rather large amount of money.
It�s a coin toss but what�s it hurt to clean up one of these motors and find out its a diamond in the ruff.
Let me know what you guys think?

[cbauer]

Dajeepman,
I plan to get the jeep done before the Colorado fall colors tour with mike38 and the rest of the gang of other flat fender maladjusted metal heads (some of the best bunch of guys and gals I�ve had the pleasure to meet)  . You should plan a trip at least once, it was jeep heaven!
There is a place in Munster, tx that 4x4 wheelers go on the red river, lots of trails and mud. They hold the rednecks with paychecks there every year.

[cbauer]

Working on the Lipstick on the Motor, I like a lot of contrast in the parts that attach to them. Metallic Gray engine color and gloss black for the other hardware.
I have a line on a blast cabinet which would save tons of time getting rusty parts cleaned. I have used various types of wire wheels and my witches brew to get the parts prepped for paint.
This blast cabinet will be a game changer!
Here are some pics of this weekends work.

[mtnman37879]

Why are you painting an engine that need cylinder work? Those cylinders are not ready to run, they're rusty.

[cbauer]

Actually, there�s no rust in the cylinders, that�s just the crap that i was blowing out of the block, plus I have a heavy coat of oil on it. I�ll wash it all of with some diesel after I finish checking the journals and the valve job.

[cbauer]

I've been working on the industrial motor putting it all back together. My first GoDevil L 134 build or as some say repair since its not a full rebuild!
It is such a simple motor with so may resources to make the motor come back to life.
I'm not doing a full machinest work with all new parts motor because this industrial motor was within spec on the rods and crank journels. I did brake it down all the way to clean it well and it just seemed much easyer to work on.
The work mainly consisted of replacing the valve guides, valves, cam bearing, all the studs except for the head studs. Also honed the cylinders, laped the valves, and polished the crank myself
I had to stop the assymbly because the rope seal and i did not see eye to eye in the installation, even after many tutorials from youtube, and all the other sites that we have, so I ordered Ron Fitzpatric crank seal for my own ease of installation.

I picked up the valves and valve guides from RockAuto (federal mogul) (I did not use any amix ada parts) with some other misc. parts needed, the cam bearing from Napa, and all the other parts and bolts resourced from local venders.

I removed the guides with hardend alltread worked perfectly, and made my own guide instalation tool from one of the old valves and a 1-1/8" pin from the transmission left over from that rebuild. I cut one of the valve guides to make the 1"  and 1-5/16" depth guage and just slid them over the valve for the install worked pretty slick.

[cbauer]

As some can see, I installed the front mounting plate before the cam was installed, that is because I did not pull the cam gear off when it was disassembled. I had seen a F 134 rebuild that did the same thing so no harm no foul. I have also polished the crank with #400 wet/dry sandpaper using the shoelace method and polished the journals after with metal polish. before I install the crank after I get the crank seal, Ill give it another round of metal polish just before I clean and install it.
I'll take a pic of the North Texas engineered Valve guide installation tool it was easy to make from used parts.

[athawk11]

It's cleaning up pretty nice.  Thanks for showing your progress.

[cbauer]

I'm about to meet up with cj2ajim from Baton Rouge to buy the 7.50x16 NDT's he had for sale on the 2apage. I may order 3 more of that type the a set of 5 or just one as a spare and one left over. I do plan on building a 2a for my Daughter. When she gets out of law school in four years that should give me enough time for that build. She was wanting an old truck but after driving the 66 CJ5 with the v6 dauntless and the trip for the next Falls Colors tour might get her into the jeepin.

[cbauer]

Well, I�ve been waiting to start back on the assimlbly of the motor but my rear seal has not made the jump from shelf stock to nessisary component in a motor... Dam, isure do wish I could believe that my skills were good enough the install the rope seal.

[1955CJ-5]

The rubber rear seals have been the subject of much discussion. Many have had poor results.

When I rebuilt my engine, we decided to use a rope seal, and accept a couple drops of oil here and there.

At the time I called Midwest Military and he did not even sell the rubber seal....

Here is one discussion from the 2a forum. I'm sure google can find many more..

https://www.thecj2apage.com/forums/rear-main-seal-help_topic38251.html

And from the 3a forum

http://www.cj3apage.com/cgi-bin/3Ayabb26/YaBB.pl?num=1300476538

But, they are several years old. Maybe the seals have improved?

Even more here...

https://www.thecj2apage.com/forums/why-did-i-try-removing-the-rear-main-seal_topic39699.html

[cbauer]

I did try to install the rope seal had a socket that fit the radius fairly well not perfect and just didn�t get into the grove like I thought it should and began to flatten out before making a good seat.
I got my valves adjusted and installed the manifold studs, polished on the crank a little more so not to hold me up when I get the package from Ron F.
Also went through other parts that have been sitting completed for quite a while now to catalog where They are. It�s neat to go through parts that you rehabbed long ago.